Finchem, the fox guarding the hen house
The Arizona election system stood firm during the 2020 general election despite many attempts to invalidate the results. Three weeks after the 2020 election, Rep. Mark Finchem hosted a meeting in Phoenix where Rudy Giuliani claimed Donald Trump won Arizona. Finchem then signed a resolution calling Congress to block the state’s 11 electoral college votes and instead accept “alternate 11 electoral college votes for Donald Trump.” Finchen walked through the crowd on the east steps of the Capitol on Jan. 6 after the insurrection was underway. He has been subpoenaed to appear before the Jan. 6 committee to explain his role. Finchen is a member of Oath Keepers. The founder of Oath Keepers and nine co-defendants are now on trial for seditious conspiracy. Finchem also introduced HCR2033 which seeks to decertify the 2020 election results in Arizona’s three largest counties. There is no guarantee that democracy will prevail in future Arizona elections because Finchem is now running for Secretary of State.
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Sam Dean
Midtown
Vote!
Hello, reader. My name is Caleb Rasor, and I am a sophomore at BASIS Oro Valley. In just a few short months, the 2022 midterm elections will be held in Arizona and around the country. Regardless of your party affiliation, I ask that you do one thing: vote!
Unfortunately, since there is no presidential ticket for midterm elections, they are overlooked by many Americans. In fact, midterms draw awful turnout. According to U.S. Elections Project data, average midterm voter turnout over the past 50 years has been just 41%. Although I am too young, I encourage every person of voting age to cast their ballot come November. If you are registered with a party, be sure to vote in their primary on Aug. 2 as well.
Go out and vote, not just for yourself, but for those in the past who fought for our rights and those in the future whose rights you are helping to ensure.
Caleb Rasor
Northwest side
Student loan suggestions
Do not cancel balances on student loans. It both sets a bad precedent and is unfair to those who have fulfilled their obligations and have repaid their federal student loans.
Instead, I suggest:
Eliminate interest on all federal student loans going forward
Apply all interest payments on all outstanding federal loans to the principal balance of those loans.
I believe that this is a more equitable approach in keeping with individual responsibility, yet making the loans more reasonable and fair. Eliminating interest on such loans significantly reduces the burden on graduates. Retroactively applying interest already paid to the loan balance, likewise, alleviates the financial hardship on college graduates while still requiring them to meet their financial obligations.
Dennis Winsten
Northeast side
Constitutional personal liberties
Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado has authored legislation to shut down a new Department of Homeland Security unit designed to police constitutionally guaranteed free speech, the Disinformation Governance Board. Boebert later tweeted, “This is Stalin level. This is Mao level. This is the hill to die on.” Former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii agreed and called the Disinformation Governance Board an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth.” Both are correct.
Biden’s administration is rapidly devolving into a true threat to our most cherished constitutional personal liberties.
Steve Sollenberger
Foothills
Voter fraud, by whom, really?
Republicans have consistently complained about election fraud in their desperate attempt to hold onto the ridiculous illusion that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Now we know where this political fantasy is coming from, as the case of Tracey Kay McKee, a Republican, indicates. She had lied on record to have cast a ballot for her deceased mother, also a registered Republican, and is now sentenced to two years of felony probation, fines, and community service. With all due respect for her emotional suffering, she committed the very crime she has accused the Democrats of. I am afraid that those absurd and delusional charges by Republicans of voter fraud result from a hidden self-awareness of their own readiness to commit those very crimes themselves because they cannot accept political reality and demand, in an infantile obsession, that the world circles around them exclusively. I think lying and committing crimes are simply part of the Republican toolbox, as the Jan. 6 riot tragically indicates. Maybe they are victims of Trump’s mass hypnosis.
Albrecht Classen
Midtown
Public prayer
Re: the May 3 article “Football and prayer? They just don’t mix.”
Christians are good at ignoring Bible verses they don’t like. Take prayer for instance. The Bible says “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet and pray … in secret.” (Matthew) Yet, right-wing Christians love to show how “holy” they are, especially related to how they pray — showy, ostentatious, self-aggrandizing — showcasing their “piety” for all to see — normally, a grotesque display. In a recent op/ed, John Crisp highlighted the irony of “public prayer before every high school football game. The prayers invariably included a plea to the Almighty for the safety of the players, right before they took the field under the fervent directive to beat the hell out of the other team.” I think these folks are really Anti-Christian “Christians” — violating Jesus’ principles. As a former football player, I’m not impressed by people who need to show off their “faith.” The Bible has another message: “Be ye doers of the word …” for Christ’s sake.
Patrick Cunningham
Northwest side
‘Welcome to America’ slogan
Welcome to the United Catholic States of America. Our slogan: “Be white and Catholic, or die.”
Thad Appelman
Northwest side
And after Roe?
What’s next, people? Burkas?
Joanna Broder
Foothills
The Party of Life
So the Republicans call themselves The Party of Life. These are the same people who block legislation that would lower the number of gun deaths per year, decrease the number of people dying yearly from all types of pollution and lower the number of people dying from COVID, not to mention the number of children who are hungry and the people who are homeless.
What would our country look like if the Republicans proffered to be something other than “The Party of Life?”
Fran McNeely
Northeast side
The case for water conservation
Re: the May 18 article “The case for water conservation.”
The case for water conservation should be a no brainer in the desert Southwest, but the best of intentions can have unintended consequences. Several years ago, Las Vegas began paying property owners for every square foot of lawn removed. Plant poachers were quick to seize the opportunity to profit from the surge in demand for low-water use landscape plants. Thousands of plants were stolen from public and private lands by poachers motivated by the opportunity for a fast buck at low risk. Microchips were placed in plants in areas that had experienced high rates of poaching. Some poachers were successfully prosecuted.
Fortunately, in Arizona we have several reputable desert plant nurseries offering high-quality plants at reasonable prices and sound advice about what plants will work best for you. The Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society also offers plants “rescued” from development when sufficient stock is available. See the TCSS website.
William Thornton
Midtown
